Effective SMS Marketing using Maxmail
The use of mobiles has become rampant. Most people in the developed and the developing regions of the globe own the latest handsets that they use for connecting and communicating on the move. These high-end gadgets have become a part of life- a fact that is having impact on other areas as well. Many companies are using this trend to their advantage; they are making the most a feature called SMS marketing to make their presence felt among a target group of users.
As is evident from the name, SMS marketing is a procedure wherein specific messages from a particular company are sent to certain mobile numbers. As of now, there are many guidelines in place and the marketing through such messages do not fall in the realm of spam. Most often than not, the service providers take care of the fact that the subscribers to their services are not at the receiving end of spam messages. Read More
Taking a strategic look at SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is one of the newest forms of advertising used today by big and small companies throughout the world. Although this form of marketing is becoming more and more popular with each passing year, there are always pros and cons to each successful business and strategy.
There have been many failures and successes in regards to new theories and techniques. These pros and cons are important to remember and take into consideration before you and your company test out SMS marketing for higher levels of success in your business. Read More
How to build a permission based mailing list for effective email marketing
Developing a cost-effective email list poses a challenge for all email marketers. Because email addresses change at a rate of 30 percent or more on most lists, marketers must adopt an aggressive approach to expand their list and yield a significant return on investment.
As you browse the list below please keep these helpful tips in mind:
- Consider All Touch Points: Use every point of contact with customers and prospects.
- Obtain Permission:Always obtain permission with the confirmed (double) opt-in method for online contacts. For offline contacts, update your database with when, where and how the contact was initiated. Confirm their permission in the first email.
- Required Information: Obtain email address, name, format preference and logical interests/preferences.
- Focus Equal Attention on Existing Lists: Implement strategies and incentives to transform inactive subscribers into active ones.
- Provide Valuable Benefits: Convince potential subscribers of the valuable benefits they’ll receive.
- Convey Trust: Clearly state your privacy/email policies.
Email Marketing the cost effective client engagement tool
It never ceases to amaze us that in the world of business so much time, energy and money is spent on the acquiring new clients yet very little thought or energy goes into maintaining and growing those already hard won clients.
Most businesses know the math – It can cost up to 10 times more to win a new customer than to engage those you already have. So it is a little incomprehensible to try and fathom out why so many businesses continue to ignore this goldmine sitting on their server somewhere.
With a simple email marketing strategy and the right email marketing software, businesses can begin to mine this vein of gold and re-engage customers that have already purchased from them. The great news is that email marketing is by far the most cost effective marketing medium available to any business today. And because your customers have supplied you freely with their email addresses your message is not considered spam (more on this later). Read More
How to run a competition using Maxmail’s two-way SMS marketing system
We all know that worldwide (developed western countries, OECD) mobile phone saturation rates are nearing 100%. Also, we are living in a culture and economy that is driven by fancy gadgets and instant gratification. Customers are only interested in your product or service if you have the answer to their “Right Now” problem.
The old adage of being at the “right place at the right time” has never been more of a reality.
But let me take this old wisdom one step further. The times we live in, for marketeers it is no longer about being in the right place at the right time but delivering the right message, at the right time, through the right channel.
Your customers typically have 2 email addresses, 1 mobile phone, check their emails at least once a day, carry their mobile phones with them, are avid texters and also love free stuff.
So let me show you how using Maxmail you can run a powerful two-way messaging campaign to increase your conversion rates in a matter of seconds and engage buyer interest by inviting them to participate in a competition.
In my example I will use a pseudo PC sales company that speciailses in selling low price computer hardware. John is the store manager and is an avid Maxmail user. Read More
Make your email marketing viral with Maxmail
One of the best ways to build your mailing list is by collecting referrals.
With Maxmail, when you send out a newsletter, you can include an HTML hyperlink anywhere inside the Newsletter by adding the #ForwardMail# tag. When the newsletter is sent to your subscribers, they will be able to click on the #ForwardMail# link (you can control the text label) and come to a landing page that looks like the one below.
At this stage your subscribers can forward the newsletter to their friends and also opt them into your mailing list for future mail outs.
Take a look at the following video tutorial to see how the entire process works out.
Maxmail
Email standards for HTML newsletters – Nobody cares
It’s been almost 10 years now since the broader web design world was introduced to the ideas, and the importance, of web standards. The Web Standards Project taught us all that we shouldn’t have to code the same page twice for Netscape and Internet Explorer. By designing to web standards, and with the help of increasing browser support, we could reduce the time and money spent coding and make lighter, faster, more accessible websites.
Unfortunately, just like that Celine Dion song from Titanic, HTML email rendering has been left in 1998. Getting even a relatively simple design to work in the 10 or 12 major email clients can be a very frustrating task, and support is getting worse, not better. It’s time for web designers and email client developers to realise that we need to follow the path that web standards for browsers has cut so clearly.
HTML email is here to stay
Designers, particularly web standards designers, have not shown a lot of love for the idea of HTML email. Key figures in the industry have spoken out against it, and the general approach has been very much ‘Don’t do it’.
Real time HTML Newsletter Acid Test
Does anyone has anything to say about the lack of Email standards with rendering of HTML emails across different mail clients?
I find it particularly frustrating trying to integrate an HTML email that is cross-mail client compatible.
So we have decided to build this new live Acid Test tool which will check for compliance across the following mail clients per HTML email.
Apple Mail
Eudora
Entourage
Outlook 2007
Gmail
Lotus Notes 08
Yahoo Mail
MSN Web Mail
Windows Live Mail
Mozilla thunderbird
The Acid test works along side the newsletter creation tool/HTML Editor which will process the HTML syntax of an email, check across 17 CSS properties that are partially/not supported across some of the mail clients and show the user a score for each mail client.
Have a look at this video tutorial to see how Maxmail provides you with a robust solution to combat the increasingly frustrating job of making sure your HTML emails look the same across every mail client.
We would love to hear your comments or suggestions regardnig an ACID Test of HTML emails – Help us improve it.